This invention relates to adjustable beds, and in particular to an adjustable home care bed.
Beds for hospitals, nursing homes, and other similar health care facilities are typically adjustable between a plurality of positions and attitudes, such as the Fowler, the Trendelenburg, the sitting position, and the like, to facilitate patient care and comfort. Such institutional beds are typically expensive, heavy duty devices, which include a complicated adjustment mechanism. Further, institutional beds are generally constructed with an unusually high mattress elevation such that the patient can be attended and administered to by the doctors, nurses, orderlies, and the like, without requiring the attendant to bend or stoop over the patient. In such institutions, patient transport carts, operating tables, X-ray machines, and other similar equipment are also designed at this high elevation, such that the personnel working at the institution may easily attend to the patients and transport the same between the various pieces of equipment.
Care of invalid and non-ambulatory patients in the home has become increasingly popular in view of the rising costs of inpatient care administered in hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care institutions. It has been found that with proper care, minor ailments and/or lengthy recuperatory periods can be successfully attended to in the home, with professional care provided on an outpatient basis, at a substantial cost saving to the patient. One of the major problems involved in the home care of bedridden patients is that substantial physical strength is required to adjust the position of the patient, and to assist transportation of the patient between the bed and the wheel chair. This problem is particularly prevalent in the area of geriatrics, where elderly couples attempt to care for one another at home, and obtain professional assistance on an outpatient basis. Although some adjustable beds are provided with means to vertically adjust mattress height to facilitate patient transport, they are either quite complex and expensive, or do not have sufficient tilting functions for good patient care, and are therefore not practicable for home care use by the average patient.